Hi guys,

I'm a huge poker fan and have been playing professionally on-and-off since the start of 2020. This thread is to hopefully create a place where I can share results, hand reviews and blog my poker journey from the new year.

My poker story:

I got into poker playing small pub tournaments (as many do in australia, where I am from)and experienced small success early on. I then started playing $2/3 and $2/5 at the casino and got crushed initially 😅😅😅 but then with study and work on my mental game was able to beat the games consistently for a decent winrate. I played for a few months with a good level of success and eventually quit my job to play and travel. The pandemic ****ed with this plan big time and I was forced to switch to playing online over the last year or so. This has been a difficult but rewarding process and I have eventually become a decent winner in the online games that I play.

I play a mix of online and live, depending on which games are good while being conscious of managing a good lifestyle. My social life and exercise are very important to me and over the past couple of years I've realised that taking the approach of poker over everything is not good for my mental health and eventually, my game itself. I tend to stick to cash games for the most part but will fire a tournament here or there if I think it makes sense and for the value of switching it up.

My approach to the game (as of right now) is that I want to have a very strong technical GTO understanding of most spots and then also have the knowledge of player/pool tendencies to be able to exploit that effectively. Easier said than done of course and hopefully this thread can spark some interesting discussion that can be of use to many.


Why and how I'll be making this post:

The poker playing and study grind can be a long one and having a community to do it with invariably makes it easier and more rewarding.

I'll aim to post atleast once a week with results + share a few interesting hands + study learnings from the week.


Players who I love watching:

- Garret Adelstein: As someone who started playing live, I love watching this guy play. Often chucks pure theory out of the window to exploit his opponents hard. Granted, he often plays in some very fishy lineups but I think he finds unconventional ways to absolutely max his winrate through paying a lot of attention to his opponents.

- Stefan Sontheimer/go0se.core!: love watching this guy play online cash and the way he thinks about the game. Another theory beast who exploits hard.

- jarretman!: I have this guys youtube videos to thank for my online poker education. Way better than a lot of paid content. Absolute beast

Alright Let's go!

Week 1 results:


Playing a mix of 200/400NL. The orange line is my rakeback on the second axis.

so total results including rakeback: $4270 AUD

Started off week 1 with a strong result! ran pretty good early in the week and then lost a bunch of big flips but then ran real well to recover some of that all-in-EV 😅😅😅

Around 8k hands in I realized that I was just playing too many tables and it was forcing me to play a little too passive. I dropped down to 3-tabling and focusing on taking every spot I could. This led to a drastic improvement in my red line and probably led to better results (it's tough to say since I ran like a god after this point anyway).


Study results:

- 4-5 hours of hand review using a mix of GTOWizard and GTO+
- 1-2 hours of Elliot Roe's A Game Masterclass (just started it, will post my thoughts on it later if anyone is interested)

Couple of interesting hands from the week:

1)
CO: 113.4 BB
BTN: 10.98 BB
SB: 20.5 BB
Hero (BB): 366.68 BB
UTG: 22 BB
MP: 21.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K Q

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 11 BB, CO calls 8.5 BB

Flop: (22.5 BB, 2 players) Q A 5
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (22.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 7.5 BB, CO raises to 22.5 BB, Hero calls 15 BB

River: (67.5 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, CO bets 79.9 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 79.9 BB



Thoughts: I was very happy with the was I played this - ran it through wizard later and was spot on with the line. I think his choice of bluff is also good but he can also mix betting the flop with his hand. Pretty standard.


2)
BB: 105.08 BB
Hero (UTG): 108.08 BB
MP: 154.2 BB
CO: 151 BB
BTN: 377.7 BB
SB: 77.73 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

Hero raises to 2 BB, MP raises to 6 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 4 BB

Flop: (13.5 BB, 2 players) 6 2 A
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: (13.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, MP bets 6.5 BB, Hero calls 6.5 BB

River: (26.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, MP bets 17 BB, Hero raises to 95.58 BB and is all-in, MP calls 78.58 BB



Thoughts: Biggest pot I lost this week. I think I'm reasonably happy with the line, maybe could have bet turn or x/r. We run into the 45s 3b from HJ vs LJ

3.
UTG: 168.55 BB
MP: 96.28 BB
CO: 71.55 BB
BTN: 265.7 BB
Hero (SB): 102.7 BB
BB: 119.75 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9 Q

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 6 A T
Hero bets 4 BB, BB calls 4 BB

Turn: (14 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 9.75 BB, BB raises to 24.75 BB, Hero calls 15 BB

River: (63.5 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 70.95 BB and is all-in, fold



Thoughts: And we finish things off with an attempt at exploiting a tight reg - but possibly just a huge punt

Week 2 results:




Playing a mix of 200/400NL. The orange line is my rakeback on the second axis.

so total results including rakeback: $1850 AUD

We only got through 8k hands or so this week. This was mostly due to me not spacing out my playing days properly - played really late a couple of times which really fked up my sleep. Got pretty lucky in terms of all-in EV as the graph shows which was nice. But overall I think I played very poorly this week. Playing late night is a mistake because I invariable end up tired and making mistakes.

Study results:

- 3-4 hours of hand review using a mix of GTOWizard and GTO+
- 1 hour of Elliot Roe's A Game Masterclass (just started it, will post my thoughts on it later if anyone is interested)

Couple of interesting hands from the week:

1)
MP: 104.3 BB
CO: 234.43 BB
Hero (BTN): 117.35 BB
SB: 92.5 BB
BB: 104.4 BB
UTG: 129.88 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J A

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9.5 BB, fold, fold, UTG calls 6.5 BB

Flop: (20.5 BB, 2 players) 5 Q 8
UTG checks, Hero bets 6.75 BB, UTG calls 6.75 BB

Turn: (34 BB, 2 players) K
UTG checks, Hero bets 22.5 BB, UTG calls 22.5 BB

River: (79 BB, 2 players) 2
UTG checks, Hero bets 78.6 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 78.6 BB



Thoughts: This play seems reasonable. Sim goes half pot on turn mainly but always firing the 3rd barrell

2)
Hero (BB): 143.08 BB
SB: 99 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7 K

SB raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 9 2 7
Hero checks, SB bets 4 BB, Hero calls 4 BB

Turn: (14 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, SB bets 9 BB, Hero calls 9 BB

River: (32 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, SB bets 27.5 BB, Hero calls 27.5 BB



3)

BB: 184.88 BB
UTG: 101.9 BB
MP: 12.08 BB
CO: 190.85 BB
BTN: 143.55 BB
Hero (SB): 231.15 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 4

UTG raises to 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 13.5 BB, fold, UTG calls 10.5 BB, MP calls 9.08 BB and is all-in

Flop: (40.08 BB, 3 players) 4 A 8
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: (40.08 BB, 3 players) 3
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: (40.08 BB, 3 players) T
Hero checks, UTG bets 14 BB, Hero raises to 217.65 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 74.4 BB and is all-in



Thoughts: Pure punt I think, rolled very high pre. straight blocker not really relevant in this hand so river jam makes little sense in hindsight. Set blocker kinda relevant but 44 should bet turn. Better to bluff with an 8 in my hand.